This Is HUB #2 In My Series: Trying To Draw A Graphic Novel The Old School Way (Drawing An Action Scene)

Here's what I'm doing everybody - Drawing a graphic novel without computer aids, except in the case of research or public domain photos and of course, to publish this hub. I have to do it that way, I don't have a computer that can handle anything other than surfing the web or writing a letter and I'd better not try to do them both at once. I decided to put this hub up to enrich my experience making my graphic novel, so if you happen to have an interest in what I'm doing, cool, you are welcome to follow along. Hopefully you will be encouraged to do something fun, or to achieve a good personal goal.

I asked myself: HUMANOID. CAN YOU ILLUSTRATE AN EXCERPT FROM SOME SCI-FI YOU WROTE?

My answer was, well sure, I guess....

Then I realized that this was gonna be harder than I thought. So far I have done 12 pages and I just looked back at the first page and man, oh man, does it look a M.E.S.S. compared to the ones I'm doing now. I told you in hub # 1 of this series I was picky! Which means I will be re-drawing certain things later!

(UPDATE: Check toward the end of the hub to see a before / after of page one.)

I had to read the text of my sci-fi story only once before I knew how to sketch the page I'm featuring now. The action was plain and simple, two characters interacting (one touching the other’s head), two others watching with horror, excitement or interest – I didn’t know what the char behind the console would show; excitement or interest, because the reader sees him from the back. The finished work looks like he’s just looking. I hope the "Barcilla" char, the one who has her hand on her mouth, actually does look horrified or excited or something to everyone.

After the stick figures came the flesh, limb by limb, for each of the players in the above scene. I had to draw them nude, for the most part, so I could figure out what bends where on the human body. Forgive me if I haven’t really accomplished the finished look – I also know there are no backgrounds and sometimes someone, like the male character in the foreground, might look like they lack pants (I cropped his bum out of the picture on purpose).

I am lousy at drawing clothes, which is funny because I had to practice just to make his rump look like it might if he was wearing pants. Now I happen to hate how I drew this guy, so I will redraw him tomorrow. I showed him to my Mom who took one look and said, "His elbow is too pointy. That's just my opinion." When I looked again, Mom was right, his arm was horribly foreshortened, totally by accident and pointy because he had been drawn butt naked, just so I could figure out how to place things.

As far as clothing goes, ever watch any sci-fi on TV or see a sci-fi movie? If you did, maybe you noticed that the girls all have on pants of some sort with revealing tops, unless they are a Princess, or supposed to be the cute girl in trouble with the bad guys, or a prostitute or something. Then they are wearing skirts, usually long and flowing in other worldly breezes. Ha ha! I'm not wrong, am I?

What I found out working my way to this scene was that I had to design everything - I mean, it was really easy to write and say, "She wore a blue shirt and he complemented her by accident by wearing his best blue cuffs" or some other such stuff. But now I'm like the writer / director / producer / editor / artist / art director all mushed into one, making a storyboard or outline for my graphic novel.

Now the issues are:

HUMANOID - EXACTLY HOW LONG ARE THE "CUFFS" YOU ARE REFERRING TO? AND HOW ARE THEY ATTACHED TO HIS ARMS? AND WHAT THE DEUCE DOES HIS JACKET LOOK LIKE? IS SHE WEARING A SKIRT?? WHAT DOES THE ROOM LOOK LIKE? AND HOW CLOSE ARE THEY TO THE DOOR? (ETC, ETC….)

Maddening! I thought I was drawing so slowly that the seasons might have changed! Then I realized that for this work I was doing a lot more than "talking" with my pen. I had to research the human body again just to make things look reasonably accurate, then figure out their surroundings and research consoles, rockets and on and on....

I decided to keep the girls in slacks, jeans, pants and whatever. Because in outer space you will probably always need a good sweater and unless you are going to some event, you'll always need to be able to fix something without getting your skirt caught in a fan or whatever. Unless you are a Princess or something.

Now so you know, I am kind of protecting the content of the story, so I'm going to only show you action without the dialog that goes with the scene. (Because you never know with the internet, you know?) I guess I should point out that all my stuff is “copy write 2011” (that's what my friend Justin says to write). I told him that I'm not telling trade secrets here, just trying to have some fun and maybe meet a few of you that like the same things I do.

And maybe learn something from all of you.

OK, back to the fun!

Music I listened to as I wrote this hub:

"Head Like a Hole", by Nine Inch Nails off of Pretty Hate Machine

"Miss Murder", by AFI off of DECEMBERUNDERGROUND (I will always love this album because I was born in December and I hate it! But when I got this CD, it made me feel cool somehow! PUN ALERT! :P)

"Mine", by Taproot off of Welcome

"Mind's Eye", by DC Talk off of Jesus Freak (really old)

"Stupify (their spelling)", by Disturbed off of The Sickness

"Rise Today", by Alterbridge off of Blackbird

"Live Your Life (featuring Rihanna)", by T.I. off of Paper Trail

(I like a big variety of tunes, so you never know what you will see here and I pulled a lot of tunes that begin with "m" today....)